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Erik Tavares photo
Barre, VT — After starting off the season at the largest speedway in New England, the American-Canadian Tour is ready to roll into the State of Maine for the Pine Tree State 125 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday, April 28. After having to cancel this weekend’s opening events due to continued water build-up in the parking areas along Route 26, next weekend’s doubleheader with the Oxford Championship Series on Saturday will serve as the 75th season opener for Oxford Plains Speedway.
Oxford Plains Speedway has long claimed the spot as the Maine home of the American-Canadian Tour starting way back in 1980. That first event was the Pine Tree Open 100, a combination event of the ACT Tour, then called the Molson Tour, and the famous Oxford Open Series that saw a list of Northeast icons join that inaugural Tour event at the 3/8-mile oval. Next Sunday’s Pine Tree State 125 will serve as the 89th American-Canadian Tour event at Oxford, and couldn’t come at a better time.
Returning as a beginning-of-the-season event after several seasons as an early-July showcase, the Pine Tree State 125 has attracted not only the full-time runners of the Tour, but a strong list of traveling teams looking to join the show. Southern New England is sending up a strong contingent before the gates of New London-Waterford Speedbowl and Seekonk Speedway have opened for the season. Joshua Hedges is making the trip from New Bedford, Massachusetts while Rhode Island sends along Jacob ‘Rowdy’ Burns and Robert Pelland III will pilot the Ryan Vanasse machine.
La belle province of Quebec sends down expected Serie ACT Quebec front runners Louis-Philippe Lauzier of St-Pacôme and Michael Lavoie from Chicoutimi while Maine-based runners Dave MacDonald and Colby Meserve will also attend. Meserve will be shaking down his machine for a run at the Star Speedway track championship in Epping, New Hampshire this season. The Green Mountain State of Vermont sends Mike Foster and Brooks Clark across Route 2 for the Pine Tree State 125 as well.
After making it a three-peat in the Northeast Classic, Derek Gluchacki leads the American-Canadian Tour championship standings rolling into Oxford, another track the rising star from Dartmouth, Massachusetts has found great success and strength at in recent seasons. Windham, Maine’s Brandon Barker also had a marquee day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and looks to continue a strong start, as does Quebec’s Alexendre Tardif who, like Gluchacki, has also had strong runs on the Oxford oval.
Following a rough-and-tumble start to the year, defending champion D.J. Shaw, Gabe Brown, Erick Sands and Jonathan Bouvrette, along with rookies Kasey Beattie, Kaiden Fisher and Jeremy Sorel, will need to make up some ground at Oxford before rolling into Thunder Road the following week.
The American-Canadian Tour returns to the Great State of Maine for the Pine Tree State 125 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday, April 28. The spectacular Sunday showcase will also feature the PASS Super Late Models, PASS Modifieds and the Little Webb’s 350 Supermodified Series with a 1:30pm Post Time.
For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @ACTTour.
